Tralokinumab Controls Moderate-to-Severe AD Over the Long Term

— Steven Feldman, MD, PhD, highlights the importance of improving quality of life

MedicalToday

Tralokinumab (Adbry) was approved by the FDA in December 2021 for adult patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis based on data from three of the ECZTRA trials. A recent post-hoc interim subgroup analysis of the ongoing ECZTEND open-label extension trial -- which included ECZTRA participants -- assessed whether continuous use of tralokinumab provided long-term disease control in this patient population.

Steven Feldman, MD, PhD, of Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, provides an overview of the findings and the importance of treating patients long term.

Following is a transcript of his remarks:

Atopic dermatitis is a horrible condition when it's severe, and it's not a short-term cure disease. And we need treatments that are good in the long run. Now, we have developed recently a better understanding of the pathophysiology of the disease and treatments that get at the underlying immunopathogenesis. And tralokinumab is one of them, and seeing that it works in the long term is terrific.

You might expect that drugs that block the key inflammatory pathway like interleukin-13 in atopic dermatitis should work, and should work steadily. But there is the concern that biologics can be immunogenic and your body can develop antibodies against them. So it's nice to see that the tralokinumab doesn't seem to have a big problem in that area, that patients who continue on the therapy continue to do well.

Itch affects sleep, concentration, mood, and then losing sleep certainly affects mood and performance. And so the overall quality-of-life impact of atopic dermatitis in some people is enormous. Treating patients and getting them well, it's something -- we're doing God's work. I don't know how big an impact, knowing the quality-of-life changes are big with drugs like tralokinumab, because I'm going to treat the patient anyway. I want to get their disease gone.

I think knowing that we're making a big quality-of-life improvement for patients -- the patients know that, the doctors know that -- and maybe these data can be useful when we're educating payers about how important it is for our patients to have access to these life-changing treatments.

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    Greg Laub is the Senior Director of Video and currently leads the video and podcast production teams.